March 11, 2006

Bloofargo*

You make your way to the university library after a harrying day at the office**. You find the book you want after a prolonged and difficult search. (Libraries these days have computerized catalogue searches, but that is exactly the point.) Then, and only then, do you realise that you’ve forgotten your library card. You return to the Abode*** at an unearthly hour and in some dismay, and crash without even checking on the Blog.

And you make your way to the library again the next evening, library card securely in wallet, and search for the book again, and try to check it out, only to find that your membership has expired. At any other time this discovery would be heartening, for it means that the university finally (finally) admits that you’ve completed your course, but at this particular moment it is rather unwelcome. You are told that books cannot be borrowed by an Ex-Member (the very lowest form of library-life, if the look on the matron’s face is anything to go by), and then you are given several important-looking forms that you shall have to fill out if you wish to climb the evolutionary ladder and become a Regular Member (as opposed to a Student Member, which you proudly were until the dawn of that fateful day). You return to the Abode at an unearthly hour and in some dismay, and steel yourself for the form-filling activities that are undoubtedly going to take up most of the weekend.

And then, out of sheer spite, you choose to blog about it.

* this title is, of course, incomprehensible to the reader. Said reader may take solace in the fact that it is equally incomprehensible to the One.

** the library and the office, naturally, are at opposite ends of the city. Country, even.

*** the Abode and the library, naturally, are also at opposite ends of the city.

Casa: Used to, used to. Until one finished, much to the surprise of all concerned.

Anjali: Closely related to that unfortunate species, of course, is the Member Who Keeps Unfathomably Large Stack of Books On Reading Desk, Thus Depriving Other Esteemed Members Of Knowledge and Rightful Reading Pleasure. And then you have the most reviled Member Who Insists On Using Cellphone For Full-Throated If Utterly Pointless Conversation.

Wow... I had wondered how One could finally get a membership in a university library. --Oh well... I am lucky that they let me into the little public library after I yelled when I brought back a book that some idiot had ruined... I found it, but because I had it last... I had to pay for it and still didn't get to keep the book.

Nessa: Thanks. One can always count on *the anonymous*, of course (count on for sympathy, that is .. not count on to have party-pooper-ish weekends).

Casa: Well, one returned recently from a stint abroad. And now one is grinning from ear to cauliflower ear, for one has found a potential audience for one’s humble life-story! Better beware, Casa, for one is dusting off the baby-pictures and the birthday cards and even the old sixth-standard Hindi Composition notebook. You shall soon be subjected to The Unabridged Life-History of the One (in Technicolor and Dolby surround sound) unless you are very careful.

*eyebrows raised* I cannot imagine tearing apart the short term loan section which is 3 stories high and many many many aisles wide. One wants to come to Toronto and teach such nifty tricks to Dee maybe??

Twilight: Nice to see you around again! But one does not believe in corporal punishment, even for blogs. And one understands your point about the brackets, but please, pleeease not to discuss them any further. One has received enough stick for that post :(